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A SERMON 



O.N THE OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF 

ZACHABY TAYLOR, 



LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



^rfflfjjrit in tip lUfarmrii.Diitrji €\\m\) of Kranklp, 

JULY 14th, 1850, 
BY MAURICE W . DWIGHT, » . P * 

THE PASTOR. 



A SERMON 

ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF 

ZACHARY TAYLOR, 

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 

^rrnrljrii in fjj? Murntrfr Dittrlj Cljnrrji of i'rnoklqir, 

july 14th, 1850, 



BY MAURICE W. DWIGHT, 

THE PASTOR. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



BROOKLYN : 

I. VAN ANDEN'S PRINT, EAGLE BUILDING, 30 FULTON STREET. 
1850. 



I 






correspondence- 
Brooklyn, July 15, 1850. 

Rlv. M. W. DwionT, D. P. 

Respected Pastor: — The undersigned, having been deeply impressed with the 
solemnity and appropriateness of your discourse, delivered on the occasion of the decease 
of Zachary Taylor, late President of the United states, respectfully request, at your 
early convenience, a copy for publication. 

Affectionately yours, 

Samuel Smith, A. V. Cortelyou, 

John Skillman, Rouert T. Thorne, 

Benjamin D. Silliman, John Dimon, 

Adriance Van Brunt, C. Prince, 

John Haslett, • T. C. Ji \ ■. 
William S. Herriman, A. Dunsmore, 

Theodore Polhemis, Jr., Hamiet. Osborne, 

J. Carson Brevoort, R. Benson Lefferts, 

Abraham J. Beekman, Thomas T. Buckley, 

Samuel Sloan, Martin \V. Brett, 

Barnet Johnson, James McMillan, 

Lawrence Van Kleeck. 



Brooklyn, July 17, 1850. 
Dear Brethren : — Your approbation of my public services must ever be grateful to 
me. The testimony, however, which you have given of it on the present occasion, was 
certainly very unexpected. Left to my own unbiassed judgment, I should never have 
thought of giving the sermon for which you ask, to the press. It was written, as you are 
aware, in the short time allotted for pulpit preparation, and was designed for preaching — 
not for printing . But a request for publication so numerously and respectably signed, I 
do not feel at liberty to refuse ; and I therefore place it at your disposal. 

Yours in the fellowship of the Gospel, 

M. W. DYVIGHT. 

To Samuel Smith, Esq, and others. 



SERMON. 



psalm 46 : — 1st to 3d verse inclusive. 

" Grod is our refuge and strength ; a very present help in 
trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be re 
moved, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of 
the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. " 

"There is no man that hath power over the 
spirit to retain the spirit ; neither hath he power in 
the day of death; and there is no discharge in 
that war." This truth, so strikingly presented by 
the wise man, is the subject of constant demon- 
stration in the circles around us. Can no plea avail, 
no shield be interposed, to save from the ruthless 
hand of the destroyer, that doating mother, whose 
heart is pouring itself forth in unceasing caresses 
over the little fondling which she presses to her 
bosom, and for whose welfare she would watch 
with sleepless care, that it might be trained to use- 
fulness, respectability, and happiness in life 1 Must 
that father, whose counsels and daily toils are in- 
dispensable to the support and comfort of a young 



and helpless family, be torn away I And that 
young man, who has just entered upon his career, 
his bosom swelling with emotion, in view of the 
prospects that brighten on his path ; and that little 
child, so winning in its innocence and sportivencss, 
that seems to be the only link that binds its devoted 
parents to the world ; must they, too, perish 1 Yes ! 
"There is no discharge in that war." Neither age, 
nor sex, nor condition, nor relationship, can stay 
the footsteps of the destroyer. 

It is not of our Fathers, nor of the Prophets 
merely, that we are constrained to raise the inquiry, 
" Our Fathers, where are they ; and the Prophets, 
do they live for ever V Every day brings forth the 
cry from wailing lips, and anguished hearts, "My 
mother, my husband, my son, my child, where are 
they?" Nay, every hour, on the one side, or on the 
other, these sacred ties are broken, " and the mourn- 
ers go about the streets." But they are ordinary 
events — scenes with which we are familiar, and 
they produce but little impression. When, howev- 
er, men of high intellectual worth and exalted sta- 
tion, who are distinguished by their achievements, 
as well as by their powers ; who have a widespread 
reputation for their wisdom in the councils of the 
nation, or their skill and courage and success in the 
field of battle ; when such men are unexpectedly 
taken away, it arouses attention everywhere — 
stirs up commotion in every bosom — and the truth 
is not only seen but felt, "that no man hath power 



over the spirit to retain the spirit." How often, 
within the last few months, has the truth been 
brought home to us in demonstrations of this char- 
acter, from the metropolis of our country 1 Who 
has not been impressed with it, as the tidings reach- 
ed us that one, and another, and another of the 
Representatives in our National Legislature, had 
gone down to the grave ? Still more strongly was 
it felt, when the announcement was made, that 
Calhoun, who through so many years has been 
before us as a master-mind, exercising a controlling 
influence over the destinies of our land, was no 
more. It was renewed, on hearing that his succes- 
sor had scarcely begun to occupy his place in the 
Senate Chamber, ere he was called to sleep beside 
him in the grave ! 

Little, however, did we think, that these distin- 
guished men were entering the world of spirits to 
herald the coming of him, who, from a still loftier 
station, has now descended to the same resting 
place. And that the tidings of their death was so 
soon to be followed by the announcement that 
Zachary Taylor, the President of these United 
States, " has breathed his last and is no more." Yet 
such is the dispensation which is now carrying con- 
sternation and grief through this widespread coun- 
try. How brief was the summons ! How unex- 
pected the event ! The hardy warrior, with iron 
nerve, and iron frame, who has endured the priva- 
tions and toils of the camp ; braved the perils of the 



battlefield; stood unharmed amid the arrows of 
death falling on every side of him ; and passed se- 
curely through the fatigues and exhaustions to 
which the bestowment of civil honors subjected 
him, has sunk in a few days under the power of 
disease ! So transient is earthly glory ! So soon 
the conqueror of others is himself a prey to the 
conqueror of all ! Neither vigor of constitution, 
nor exalted station, nor high intellectual and moral 
endowments, nor the respect and admiration of 
the world, nor the desires and prayers of his coun- 
try, could save him from the common lot of man ! 
He is withdrawn from the station to which he was 
raised by the unbought and unsolicited suffrages of 
his countrymen ; and which, though bred in the 
tented field, and not in courts, he proved himself 
eminently fitted to occupy and adorn. 

The manner in which he was brought forward 
seemed to mark him out as a chosen instrument of 
Providence, to meet the exigencies of the times. 
It was the great and noble qualities which he dis- 
played in waging his country's wars, and the spirit 
he exhibited in the hour of danger, and when vic- 
tory crowned his efforts, that commended him to 
the hearts of the people. And in his elevation, 
party feelings were, to a considerable extent, sacri- 
ficed, and party lines broken up ; so that the honor 
to which lie was advanced could with more than 
ordinary truth be designated the award of a nation's 
gratitude. 



And how has ho acquitted himself of the trust 
reposed in him ? Washington was the model to 
which he avowed his determination to he conformed, 
and it would be difficult, from the page of our history, 
to select the public man in whoso character and 
acts the distinguishing traits by which the Father 
of his Country endeared himself to his own and 
succeeding generations, have been more illustrious- 
ly displayed. Prudent, sagacious, of incorruptible 
integrity, of unyielding firmness, simple as a child 
in his disposition and manners, and of devoted pa- 
triotism, he seemed to be peculiarly fitted to grapple 
with the difficulties and avert the dangers of the day, 
But the invisible hand, which lifted him up, has 
cast him down, and he now sleeps, unaffected by the 
stormy agitations around him. We had thought that 
this was he by whom the convulsions which have 
been threatening to rend in pieces the fair heritage 
entailed upon us by our fathers, were to be quieted ; 
that through the exercise of his wisely directed in- 
fluence, the rage of faction would be stilled, and un- 
principled ambition be put to shame. But, while we 
are anxiously looking for the results of such ex- 
pectations, he is gone, and another is summoned to 
execute the high commission. 

So Providence often interposes to disappoint the 
unwarranted expectations of His creatures. " Am 
I," said Joseph to his trembling brethren, " am I in 
the place of God to you 1" Is man, however ex- 
alted his qualifications, or extended his influence, 
the controller of the destinies of a nation ? We 



LO 

are too much disposed to regard human agenc} as 
the efficient power by which the great interests of 
the world are carried forward in successful accom- 
plishment. So did Israel, in days that have passed 
a\va\ . When an enemy threatened, "they went down 
to EgA pt for help, or turned to King Jareb, or looked 
to the Assyrian." And God visited their iniquity 
i>\ chastisement. Whether this disposition to honor 
man to the forgetfulness of God, to stay ourselves 
on an earthly Executive for that which the Sove- 
reign of the Universe alone can achieve, has brought 
upon our nation the calamity they now deplore, is 
not a matter for us to determine. But that the 
event is intended to demonstrate that God is not 
limited to specific agencies in the accomplishment 
of His designs ; that no individual, however high in 
the estimation of his fellows, is necessary to carry 
out the Divine purposes ; that "the wise man may 
not glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man glory 
in his might, nor the rich man glory in his riches, 
but that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord," who 
can doubt 1 Man, when his qualifications arc best 
adapted to meet the exigencies in which he is called 
to act, is but the instrument through whom God 
works. " It is not in man to direct his own steps," 
but " the ordering of his way is of the Lord." How, 
then, shall he direct and control the complicated 
movements of an empire, so that general prosperity 
and happiness shall be the result of their working 1 
Should this teaching of God be successful ; should 
the National mind, humbled under the influence of 



11 

His mighty hand, realise how vain arc the hopes 
that hang on human wisdom and on human worth, 
and turn to Him, acknowledging their guilt, and 
saying, in the exercise of a confiding spirit, " God 
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in 
trouble," we may gather from the grave of our de- 
parted chief, the very blessing which we had hoped 
to receive from his life. 

This is the second time, in the history of our 
nation, that we have been called to lament the death 
of its constitutional head. In the former, as in the 
present case, the event was unexpected, and w r e felt, 
as the report reached us, constrained to say, "what 
hath God wrought!" Our country has lost the 
representative of its sovereignty — it deplores the 
death of a father. It is becoming, in a people, to 
pay respect to their illustrious dead. The consti- 
tuted authorities of our States, anrWties, and towns, 
have felt the claims, wherever the Tidings have cir- 
culated, and signals of distress have been thrown 
upon the wind, to remind every man, as he looked 
upward, of the loss he had sustained, and bring all 
hearts into a common sympathy. It is becoming, 
too, that as Christians we should take such notice of 
the event, as shall tend to quicken us in the per- 
formance of duty, strengthen our graces, lead us for- 
ward in our high vocation, and keep us in readiness 
for a coming Lord. 

And how can we better attain these ends, than 
by lifting up our thoughts to God, and contemplat- 



12 

ing Him as our refuge and resource in the time of 
trouble. 

It is a time of trouble when the political head of 
the country is laid low. Not because of any diffi- 
culty in filling up the vacancy which death has 
made. Thanks to the wisdom of our fathers, am- 
ple provision has been made for such a contingency, 
and through its application, another Executive is 
already in his place. Nor is it from any apprehen- 
sion which exists in reference to the qualifications 
of the present incumbent. We look at it now, in a 
different aspect. " The powers that be are ordain- 
ed of God." "By Him, kings reign, and princes de- 
cree justice." Through the workings of His Prov- 
idence, men ascend to honor and power. Nor is it 
without design that He exalts one instead of another. 
And when, ere the time of his commission has ex- 
pired, God interposes and calls away his servant 
From the sphere ?ft which He had placed him; when, 
having lifted him up, and made him an object of 
high public expectation, He suddenly cuts him down 
again, and disappoints the hopes that circled around 
him ; is not His hand turned against us, and is it not 
in anger that He deals with us ? And why is it so 1 
Why are those noble and generous qualities which 
seemed, in so eminent a degree, to fit their possessor 
for the station which he occupied, and gave such 
promise of advantage to the country, so soon ren- 
dered useless 1 Nor is this the first time that God 
has withdrawn the face of light, and turned 
towards us the face of darkness. This is only one 



13 

of many dispensations, running through a series of 
years, which proclaim the truth that God hath a 
controversy with us. He has before smitten us in 
our representative head : we have been left to in- 
volve ourselves in the guilt and horrors of war; the 
pestilence has been abroad among us, in its desola- 
ting ravages, and still lingers at our doors, as 
though its work was not finished ; the floods have 
swept over us with a destroying hand ; and the fires 
are still devouring in the streets of our cities. 
These are no unmeaning signs, nor do we need a 
special messenger from Heaven to give an interpre- 
tation of them. They proclaim, in language not to 
be misunderstood, that we have provoked the Holy 
One of Israel to anger. They tell us that " our 
sins have separated between God and us." And 
they call upon us now, while our hearts are moved, 
and our feelings are tender under this fresh visita- 
tion, to " regard the work of His Mfcnds." 

Our trouble is increased at the present time by 
the peculiarity of our national circumstances. You 
are all familiar with the threatening aspect of our 
public affairs. You are aware that we have reached 
a crisis in our national existence which is straining 
to the last thread the cords that bind our Confede- 
rated States in union with each other. Never be- 
fore have the clouds lowered so deeply, and the 
tempests raged with such long and unmitigated 
violence. The sea of politics is a sea of storms, 
which human passions are ever lashing into fury ; 
and when the Vessel of State is abroad among 



14 

them, it requires more than ordinary skill to guide 
her safely. Where is our Pilot, with whom we 
had hoped to weather the storm 1 A few days 
since, he stood firm as a rock amid opposing tides 
and dashing waves. The heart of the community 
was in a state of comparative ease, through their 
confidence in the individual to whom its interests 
were entrusted. He seemed to be in every respect 
the man for the time. His previous history had de- 
monstrated too clearly his energy, uprightness, and 
devoted attachment to the well-being of his coun- 
try, to admit of a doubt that all that, devolved on 
human agency would be achieved by his guiding 
and controlling hand. Other considerations con- 
nected with him were calculated to disarm predju- 
dice, and inspire hope that he was the chosen agency 
through whom God would work in mitigating 
the bitterness of sectional jealousj', and rebuking 
schemes of separate organization. 

But that spirit which we had thought so well 
trained and fitted for the work, has passed away, 
and left his mission for another. The helmsman 
is gone, and the ship still struggles. And who, 
while he has sorrowed for the mighty dead, has not 
felt the stirring of fear, lest he has been withdrawn 
that the evil we deprecated, and which our iniqui- 
ties have deserved, might break upon us in all its 
fury 1 It is our anxiety with reference to coming 
events, whose shadows have been long falling heavily 
around us, that deepens our day of trouble. 

But, blessed be God, the pillars that bear up the 



15 
Constitution — the columns on which the irlorious 



b J 



temple of the Union rests — are not jet fallen and in 
fragments around us, that, like Marius, amid the 
ruins of Carthage, we should sit down and weep 
over the ravages which man has effected. 

" Mother," said a little child to a disconsolate pa- 
rent, sorrowing for the loss of her husband, " Mo- 
ther, is God dead?" Brethren, God lives! that 
God ivho " is our refuge and strength, our very -pre- 
sent help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, 
though the earth be removed, and though the moun- 
tains be carried into the midst of the sea. T lion eh 
the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the 
mountains shake with the swelling thereof." Yes, 
God lives; He who holds "the hearts of the chil- 
dren of men in His hands, and turns them as He 
turns the rivers of water." This is our resource, 
and here we stay ourselves in the time of trouble. 
Let Him work by whom He will work. He casts 
down one and lifts up another, and no fears need 
be entertained with respect to him on whom the 
descending mantle has fallen. Though not schooled 
in the camp and in the held, he has been well 
trained in civil pursuits, and will guide with a wise 
head and a skilful hand the Vessel of State. Yet, 
let who will sit in presiding authority over the af- 
fairs of the Republic, or who will be in council and 
in legislation on their behalf, we would have you, 
brethren, look to higher rule, and hang your hopes 
upon a mightier hand. This is one great lesson to 



16 

be learned with practical effect from that solemn 
event which has called a nation to mourn. 

And if we would be lifted up, and have just 
ground of hope in God, let each individual do what 
in him lies to put away the crying iniquities of the 
land. The head is taken away to punish the evil 
which is everywhere preying upon the body. The 
language of God through this dispensation is, 
" Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and 
shut your doors about you." " Amend your ways 
and your doings." He would bring us to considera- 
tion, that we may know and feel the grounds of 
controversy which exist between Him and us, and 
labor with Christian faithfulness to sweep them from 
His presence. Let it not be said of us, " why should 
ye be stricken any more ? ye will sin yet more and 
more." While the chastening hand is yet on us, 
and ere it is withdrawn in hoplessness, and we are 
left to utter obduracy, let us humble ourselves and 
turn to God, and plead with Him for Jesus' sake to 
" be merciful to our iniquities, and hide His face 
from all our transgressions." Was this the spirit 
wakened and brought into exercise throughout the 
land, by what God has wrought, the triumph 
achieved by the death of him we mourn would be 
of greater value to his country than the many vic- 
tories won upon the battle fields, which have given 
such just celebrity to his life; for then God would 
be " our refuge and strength, our very present help 
in trouble." 

Brethren, this is a day of mourning in our land, 



17 

and we are together this morning in the house of 
mourning ! " It is better," says the wise man, " to 
go to the house of mourning than to the house of 
feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the 
living will lay it to his heart." The grave of our 
honored President has closed over all that remains 
of him, and his body sleeps in quietness, while his 
" spirit has returned to God who gave it." Who will 
not say, " Fare thee well, thou wise, brave, generous, 
honest man ! May thy spirit rest with God, while 
thy country guards and honors the sepulchre that 
holds what earth retains ! Fare thee well !" 

This is the day, and in the house of God and at 
the grave is the place where party irritations must 
be merged in one common sensibility. However 
bitter and unsparing may be the conflicts elsewhere, 
and at other times, here, and under present circum- 
stances, we are all Americans, children of the same 
soil, mourning for the unexpected calamity which 
has taken away our common head. And now, 
brethren, look at all that is left of the hero of many 
battles, the victor in many fields, the honored of this 
great country, the President of these confederated 
States, which stretch from sea to sea, from the sunny 
south to the ice-bound regions of the poles. The 
w T inding-sheet enwraps him, the coffin and the grave 
arc his habitation ! "Go," says Saladin the Great, 
the Emperor of the Saracens, to the herald who 
had carried his banner before him in all his battles, 
" fasten to the top of a lance this shroud, in which 
thy dying Prince is soon to be buried. Go ! carry 



18 

this lance, unfurl this banner, lift up this standard, 
and proclaim, as you go along — This, this is all that 
remains to Saladin the Great, the conqueror, and 
the king of the empire, of all his glory !" 

How it tends to quiet the agitations of earthly 
interest and earthly passion, when death steps for- 
ward and demonstrates the littleness of them all ; 
when he stamps a character of such insignificance 
on all that we are contending for ; when, as if to 
make known the greatness of his power in the sight 
of a whole country, he stalks in ghastly triumph 
over the might and grandeur of the nation. What 
are the gains of earth, what its envied distinctions, 
but " the flowers of the field," frail as they are beau- 
tiful ? All belong to "the fashion of the world, that 
passeth away." When men enter into the presence 
of God, they stand before Him stripped of all that 
stirred up the gaze and admiration of the world, 
and resting for their eternal apportionment on those 
indelible characters which the habits of life have 
enstamped upon them. In that presence, all mere 
earthly distinctions vanish ; the rich and the poor, the 
mighty and the ignoble, meet together on a common 
level. All are immortal creatures ; all must give 
account of their stewardship ; all must " receive ac- 
cording to the deeds done in the body." Oh ! it is 
not for time, that is " a vapor, that appeareth for a 
little season, and then vanisheth away," that we 
should live, but for eternity ; not for the prizes dis- 
tributed by the hands of men, but for the greater 
honor that comes from God. We do well to hang 



19 

out our signals of distress, and give ourselves to 
sorrow, and pay due honor to the mortal remains 
of the mighty dead, as they fall around us. " But 
what if we were called to celebrate the funeral 
obsequies" of a lost soul ? Where should we find 
tears fit to be wept at such a spectacle 1 Or could 
we realize the calamity in all its extent, what tokens 
of commisseration and concern would be deemed 
equal to the occasion ? Oh ! the sun might veil its 
light, and the moon her brightness, the ocean be 
covered with mourning, and the heavens be hung 
with sackcloth; nay, the whole fabric of nature 
might become animated and vocal, and still there 
could not be a groan so deep and a cry so piercing 
as to convey a fit sense of the magnitude of the 
calamity. " What, then, shall it profit a man if he 
shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul 1 
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul 1 



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